- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
What’s going on with Friday Night Footy?
Seven.
That is the miserably low number of Friday night matches this season that features two finalists.
Friday night is primetime. Friday night is the match that sets the tone for the rest of the weekend – it’s the opening bounce of an epic three-day footyfest we all enjoy every week.
But rather than treat us to classic matches featuring premiership contenders, the AFL’s Friday night offerings thus far have been meek.
Last week’s Essendon vs North Melbourne clash was the first Friday night game to feature two of 2014’s top eight sides, and by then we’d already been ‘treated’ to three matches featuring no 2014 finalists, as well as three matches featuring wooden spoon favourites Carlton.
The result of this poor scheduling has been damning. Before last week’s thriller, the average margin for Friday night games was a whopping 53 points, by far the highest of any timeslot.
People who are watching this game for the first time watch Friday night football. It’s on in pubs, RSLs and even some restaurants around the country. For people who play, umpire and volunteer in community football, Friday night is sometimes the only match they’re able to watch each weekend.
But as it stands, the people who tune in to this fabled primetime slot are being served rubbish.
The NRL attacks Friday night with stunning ferocity, often scheduling two games featuring absolute heavyweights. While that code’s fans often complain that the Brisbane Broncos play just about every time, they’re more often than not a good team and are always pitted against quality opposition.
This ferocity compared to the AFL’s lackadaisical approach to Friday night makes for some serious head-scratching.
Who asked to see Carlton in primetime seven times? That’s one more Friday night match than both of 2014’s grand finalists combined. In fact, the number of Friday night matches featuring at least one top six side from 2015 is fewer than the number of matches featuring a side that finished between 9th-13th.
Obviously the AFL has challenges in this area of fixturing. The number of Victorian teams in the competition often means that the MCG or Etihad Stadium needs to be used three time in one round. If a venue needs to be used three times in one round, then one of those matches will need to be on Friday night.
Given that non-Victorian clubs are dominating the competition at present, we are going to see the odd Collingwood vs St Kilda game to open the round.
But in order to avoid some of the horrors that await us later in the season (Carlton vs Hawthorn in Round 17? Yikes), the AFL would do well to adopt the NFL’s flexible schedule model.
The AFL already has the right idea in leaving Round 23’s running times undecided until later, but why not extend that to say, the last six weeks of the competition?
The aforementioned Round 17 has Etihad Stadium in use three times, but that Western Bulldogs vs Collingwood game on the Sunday afternoon looks a lot more tantalising than a 150-point snorefest.
While we’re at it, GWS vs Geelong is stuck in the Saturday afternoon logjam, can’t we move that to Saturday night and bump the Brisbane vs North Melbourne game down?
Adopting this kind of model would allow the AFL to make primetime adjustments depending on how teams are travelling, giving the competition the late season spike in revenue and fan interest it so desperately wants.
But such a model would obviously have its challenges, and the AFL may wait until Etihad Stadium belongs to them before even considering it.
As for tonight’s tantalising game between the injury-riddled Cats and the hapless Blues? I think I’ll go out.